Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to hold a field hearingThe Committee holds a field hearing entitled, "Shale Gas Development: Meeting the Transportation, Pipeline and Rail Needs to Renew American Manufacturing". Participants include VP Rotruck of Chesapeake Energy, VP Foracca of Spectra Energy, COO Albert of Consol Energy at the field hearing being held in Fairmont, West Virginia on April 11 at 1 pm.

On The Fly: Closing WrapThe Wall Street averages had a relatively quiet open and remained in a tight range for most of the session. The market moved to the high end of its range by mid-afternoon, which pushed the Dow and S&P to new highs and the Nasdaq ever closer to its 5,000 level. There was little momentum behind the move and the averages eventually faded, closing nearly unchanged for the session. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., new home sales slipped 0.2% to a 481K annual pace in January, which was better than the expected 2.3% decline to a 471K rate. The DOE petroleum inventory report showed crude stockpiles grew by 8.4M barrels in the week of February 20, versus expectations for a 4M barrel increase. In China, HSBC and Markit's flash purchasing managers' index for February came in at 50.1, which was above the consensus outlook of 49.7 and represented a four month high. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) dropped $3.82, or 9.92%, to $34.67 after the PC, printer and server maker reported lower than expected Q1 revenue and cut its FY15 EPS view and free cash flow outlook, citing separation costs and foreign exchange headwinds. However, analysts at Citigroup, Bernstein, and Brean Capital all recommended buying the stock on weakness in separate notes to investors today. Later in the day, Bloomberg reported, citing sources, that HP is in talks to make its biggest acquisition in several years by potentially acquiring Aruba Networks (ARUN), sending shares of the WiFi equipment maker up $3.86, or 21.0%, to $22.24. Shares of Aruba competitor Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) also gained 66c, or 5.89%, to $11.86 after Bloomberg's report on potential M&A in their space... Chesapeake Energy (CHK) slid $1.90, or 9.56%, to $17.98 after reporting worse than expected earnings amid the recent plunge in energy prices and announcing lower capital spending plans for 2015. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Benefitfocus (BNFT), which jumped $10.85, or 47.24%, to $33.82 after reporting Q4 earnings and disclosing that Marsh & McLennan (MMC) subsidiary Mercer took a 9.9% stake in the company. Also higher was SFX Entertainment (SFXE), which gained $1.09, or 29.46%, to $4.79 after the company’s Chairman and CEO, Robert Sillerman, offered to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company not already owned by him for $4.75 per share in cash. SFX Entertainment confirmed that it received the proposal and established a special committee to review and negotiate the nonbinding offer. Among the noteworthy losers was Lumber Liquidators (LL), which plunged $18.15, or 26.39%, to $50.63 after reporting Q4 earnings per share and revenue that missed consensus expectations, warning on its associated call that an upcoming "60 Minutes" piece may cast the company in an unfavorable light, and disclosing in its annual report that the Department of Justice indicated in recent communications that it is contemplating seeking criminal charges under the Lacey Act. Also lower following their earnings reports were shares of Republic Airways (RJET), which fell $2.17, or 14.49%, to $12.81, and LendingClub (LC), which dropped $3.14, or 13.28%, to $20.51. INDEXES: The Dow added 15.38, or 0.08%, to 18,224.57, the Nasdaq slipped 0.98, or 0.02%, to 4,967.14, and the S&P 500 dropped 1.62, or 0.08%, to 2,113.86.

American Energy - Utica responds to Chesapeake lawsuitAmerican Energy – Utica, LLC, or AEU, and The Energy & Minerals Group, or EMG, responded to a meritless lawsuit commenced against AEU by Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake has erroneously included AEU and certain yet to be named investors in a lawsuit it filed today against certain entities owned or controlled by Aubrey McClendon including American Energy Partners, LP, based on a dispute it has with McClendon in which Chesapeake alleges McClendon misappropriated certain Chesapeake trade secrets upon his separation from Chesapeake in 2013. Chesapeake clearly does not understand the ownership or structure of AEU, which is controlled by EMG, and Chesapeake has made no attempt to understand the ownership structure prior to carelessly and erroneously naming AEU as a party to its lawsuit. The allegations in the Chesapeake lawsuit against AEU are meritless given that all information used by AEU in connection with the acquisition of its assets was either publicly available, provided by the sellers of those assets or independently developed by The Energy & Minerals Group or W.D. Von Gonten & Co., a widely regarded independent petroleum engineering and geological firm with whom EMG has a long standing relationship. EMG is the largest equity investor in AEU followed by First Reserve. Both EMG and FR have been involved with AEU since the initial acquisition of its assets in October, 2013 yet neither was contacted by Chesapeake prior to the filing of this lawsuit. AEU will immediately respond to and vigorously defend this lawsuit and expects to be removed as a defendant as quickly as possible. Additionally, AEU and EMG intend to bring any and all appropriate counterclaims against Chesapeake for the filing of such a meritless case without conducting any reasonable investigation into the factual and legal basis for the claim and for any damages that are incurred by any of such parties as a result.